minutes of the faculty senate of arkansas tech ... 2017.pdfminutes of the faculty senate of arkansas...

Minutes of THE FACULTY SENATE

OF ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

The Faculty Senate met Tuesday, April 11, 2017, at 3:00 p.m. in Rothwell 456. The following members were present:

Dr. Molly Brant Dr. Michael Rogers Dr. Jon Clements Dr. Jeremy Schwehm Dr. Marcel Finan Dr. V. Carole Smith Mr. Ken Futterer Dr. Monty Smith Dr. Debra Hunter Dr. James Stobaugh Dr. Sean Huss Dr. Bruce Tedford Dr. Shelia Jackson Dr. Susan Underwood Dr. Johnette Moody Dr. James Walton Dr. Jason Patton Dr. Dana Ward

Dr. Melissa Darnell, Dr. Chris Kellner and Dr. Jack Tucci were absent. Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman, Dr. Hanna Norton, Dr. Jeff Aulgur, Dr. Christine Austin, Dr. Linda Kondrick, Dr. Scott Kirkconnell, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Ms. Gwen Faulkenberry, Mr. Wesley Duke, Dr. Thomas Vaughn and Dr. Michael Brodrick were visitors.

CALL TO ORDER APPROVAL OF MINUTES

President Huss called the meeting to order and asked for a motion in regard to the March minutes. Motion by Dr. Jackson, seconded by Dr. Underwood, to approve the minutes as distributed. Motion carried.

VPAA UPDATE President Huss invited Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman, Vice President for Academic Affairs, to address the Senate. Dr. Abdelrahman reported President Bowen would be giving an update this week to the Budget Advisory Committee, including information about budgets cuts distributed across campus. He empowered the faculty to directly impact the budget by retaining existing students, not by lowering standards, but by engaging students. He noted the Tutoring Center was underutilized, and asked for ideas about where tutors should be physically located across campus. Dr. Abdelrahman also asked for input on a method for measuring faculty effectiveness in advising. Dr. Abdelrahman reported the next HLC reaccreditation visit would be within the next three years and preparations were beginning to ramp up. He stated HLC had added criteria on persistence and completion. He also reported the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board meeting would be held on the ATU campus on April 21, when the cybersecurity degrees would be voted on. He announced the MBA program was now accepting applications.

NEW BUSINESS: INTERSTATE PASSPORT

Dr. Schwehm distributed information outlining the process used by the General Education Committee to evaluate ATU general education course offerings in relation to Interstate Passport (Attachment A). He reported several senators and faculty members had asked, if ATU were to adopt Passport, what it would take to move a course from a “2” to a “3” on the scale, how the assessment data would be collected, and how can they record what is already being done. Dr. Schwehm stated, if adopted, members of the General Education Committee would work with each faculty member teaching general education courses to map out what is already being done in the course to address learning outcomes. The Assessment Committee and General Education Committee would be responsible for the assessment of the data collected.

The Faculty Senate – April 11, 2017 2

Dr. Abdelrahman mentioned HLC was beginning to emphasize the importance of skills and knowledge gained from a degree rather than the credential alone and, regardless of whether Passport was adopted, the institution needed to identify and track the skills and knowledge obtained in general education courses. Dr. Stobaugh asked what amount of data entry would be required of the instructor, and when in the semester it would be expected. Dr. Christine Austin, Director of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, responded there is an existing drop down option in Banner to submit the associated general education outcome met in the course, but there were not currently many faculty utilizing the tool. She mentioned instructors would also need to provide sample artifacts from the instrument used to meet the outcomes. She also noted the outcomes would not have to be entered with the final grade, but as it is achieved in the course. The senators expressed concern with adopting an external tool for assessing general education success and discussed the potential ability for ATU to develop a tool internally. President Huss suggested empowering the General Education Committee to do so. Dr. Underwood stated she had served on the Assessment Committee a few years ago and the committee had mapped the learning outcomes in the general education courses and set up Banner to allow instructors to input the outcomes, but it had not been widely used. Discussion followed that the work already done should be revisited and improved, rather than duplicating efforts, with increased faculty accountability and training, possibly during the faculty professional development sessions. Motion by Dr. Schwehm, seconded by Dr. Stobaugh, to empower the General Education Committee to investigate the development of an internal general education assessment tool. Motion carried.

ETECH ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Dr. Linda Kondrick, Associate Professor of Physical Science, reported she and Dr. Moody had been invited to join the eTech Advisory Committee, which was investigating methods and standards for reviewing and approving online courses. She stated HLC required such standards for all online courses, but the current system only reviewed the online courses offered through eTech. Dr. Moody provided a sample rubric from the proposed methodology, Quality Matters (Attachment B) and included a comparison with other, similar tools (Attachment C). She noted the Quality Matters standards did not dictate content, but how the course materials and content were presented and provided. Dr. Moody asked for a motion to establish a standing University Committee on Web Based Course Standards to oversee approvals and scheduled reviews for all online courses. The senators raised questions about the structure of the proposed committee and how it would fit into the existing organization, particularly with the Curriculum Committee’s approval of courses. Dr. Rogers questioned why online courses should be standardized, when face to face courses are not. Dr. Kondrick responded, in recent history, some institutions were providing subpar quality online education. Dr. Walton asked for a written proposal outlining the makeup and structure of the requested committee, including the charge, which the Senate could then vote upon. Motion by Dr. Walton, seconded by Mr. Futterer, to table further discussion until a written proposal could be provided at the following meeting. Motion carried.

TIAA CREF

President Huss invited Dr. Scott Kirkconnell, Professor of Biology, to address the Senate. Dr. Kirkconnell reported he had served on a committee, chaired by Dr. Bowen, investigating the expansion of available TIAA CREF investment options. He distributed a correspondence


between himself and Mr. Bruce Curl, Interim Director of Human Resources (Attachment D), describing Dr. Kirkconnell’s request. Motion by President Huss, seconded by Mr. Futterer, for the Faculty Senate to contact Ms. Bernadette Hinkle, Vice President for Administration and Finance, regarding negotiations with TIAA CREF for self-directed investment options. Motion carried.

UNIVERSITY ELECTIONS

President Huss thanked Dr. Moody for an excellent job with the standing committee ballot in Blackboard. The senators agreed for the elections to be open from Wednesday, April 12 until Wednesday, April 19.

ADJUNCT SUPPORT COMMITTEE

Mr. Duke reported the Committee on Adjunct Support would continue drafting and fine tuning a proposal, and would plan to bring it before the Faculty Senate at the beginning of the fall 2017 semester.

OLD BUSINESS: CULTURAL CLIMATE

President Huss postponed discussion on the cultural climate survey until Dr. Kellner was present.

FACULTY SERVICE HOUR

The senators discussed the significant challenge in scheduling committee meetings, and that a scheduled hour each week may lead to more conflicts. Motion by Dr. Walton, seconded by Mr. Futterer, to cease further action on a faculty service hour and remove it from the agenda. Motion carried.

FINAL EXAM / GRADE SUBMISSION

Dr. Rogers reported the faculty and students were not in agreement on proposed changes to the academic calendar to increase the grading period at the end of the term. Dr. Hunter stated the subcommittee had been asked to explore options for change within academics, and had not approached Student Services. Mr. Futterer reported, around ten years ago, a committee was formed with stakeholders across campus, including Student Services and Administration and Finance, and the group was able to agree to changes, including allowing the final exam period to be counted as instructional time. He stated the problem could not be solved by Academic Affairs alone. Motion by Dr. Walton, seconded by Mr. Futterer, to cease further action on a change to the academic calendar and remove it from the agenda, with the stipulation an ad hoc committee would be formed during fall 2017, including stakeholders across campus, to investigate all options. Dr. Rogers expressed concern for letting this discussion cease without a resolution, noting faculty are having to change how finals are given in order to submit grades by the deadline. Motion carried.

EXTERNAL WORK POLICY

President Huss reported the External Work Policy was under review with Legal Counsel, and he hoped to have more to report in May.

CHANGING EVALUATION QUESTIONS

Dr. Patton reported the subcommittee had finalized its recommendations, and he distributed a summary (Attachment E). He noted, on the list of questions, the indented questions would only appear based on the response provided to the previous question (branching logic). He asked the Senate to move to adopt the proposed questions for evaluations given during the summer 2017 term, which would provide the subcommittee with sample data to be analyzed for validity of the questions. He indicated the subcommittee would reconvene at the beginning of the fall 2017 term to address any issues that arise during summer implementation.


Dr. Rogers suggested adding an option of “none available” under the question “Did you utilize resources outside the classroom?” since many courses do not have tutors provided by the Tutoring Center. Motion by Mr. Futterer, seconded by Dr. Rogers, to adopt the proposed evaluation questions for summer 2017 courses. Motion carried.

PROMOTION AND TENURE REVIEW PROCESS

President Huss reported he would be setting up a meeting with the subcommittee and Dr. Abdelrahman early next week. After meeting with Dr. Abdelrahman, he would send copies to the senators and ideally bring the final draft for a vote in the May Senate meeting, then for a full faculty vote prior to sending to the Board of Trustees.

SHARED GOVERNANCE

Mr. Futterer stated there would be a proposal in May to establish a body to oversee university wide governance, such as committee structure, by serving as a gatekeeper. Dr. Rogers indicated the university still operates in silos, and there were existing structures in place that need to become functional and held accountable.

OPEN FORUM

Dr. Monty Smith asked what options faculty have for retiring but continuing to work part time as an adjunct. Dr. Walton responded faculty over the age of 65 can retire and continue to work. Mr. Futterer noted faculty status is removed upon retirement.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

President Huss shared an email from Dr. Bowen to the Faculty Senate (Attachment F). President Huss announced Mr. Thomas Pennington, Legal Counsel, would be providing information sessions about the concealed carry law and how it impacts campus on April 12 and 13. Dr. Tedford stated he had attended Congressman Womack’s recent town hall meeting, and had reached out to him directly to share his thoughts and voice his concerns.

ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 5:08 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sean Huss, Ph.D., President

James Walton, Ph.D., Secretary


Attachment A


Attachment B


Attachment C


Attachment D


Attachment E


Attachment F

minutes of the faculty senate of arkansas tech ... 2017.pdfminutes of the faculty senate of arkansas...

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